


I'm Your Friend, Till The End

by singing_to_empty_caves



Series: That's What Bein' A Friend Is About [12]
Category: Mother 1 | EarthBound Zero | EarthBound Beginnings
Genre: Mentions of a Broken Home, TW:, Underage Drinking, i keep saying "it won't get any worse" and then it does, it's ellay/valentine, po-lice and getting arrested, teddy's pottymouth, the karaoke scene gets a tiny bit twisted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:48:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25452649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/singing_to_empty_caves/pseuds/singing_to_empty_caves
Summary: Maybe trusting Ninten's impulsiveness was a mistake.
Relationships: Ana & Lloyd & Ninten (Mother 1), Ana/Ninten (Mother 1), lloyd/ninten (one-sided)
Series: That's What Bein' A Friend Is About [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1524248
Comments: 13
Kudos: 15





	I'm Your Friend, Till The End

**Author's Note:**

> This one... oof, it gets pretty bad.  
> Tws:  
> -underage drinking (like... _seriously_ underage, but it's based on an optional event in the game so you can't call me TOO evil)  
> -Teddy's vocabulary is very colorful.  
> -Lloyd's home life isn't the best.  
> -The cops arrest someone.
> 
> Stay safe, y'all.

This place was _freezing._ Lloyd hadn’t even needed a jacket since Snowman, but of course the one time he did need it, he couldn’t wear it. The closest thing he had was body heat… or, it would be, if he were anywhere near anyone else.

He glanced around. Ana? She probably wouldn’t mind, but it was still a little uncomfortable… after last night, a _lot_ uncomfortable. She wasn’t even looking at Lloyd from where she sat on a stainless steel bench. He didn’t blame her.

Besies, her, there was the person asleep in the corner. As much as his hulking figure intimidated Lloyd at the moment, it was far worse when this guy was fuming and glaring at all of them in turn the night before. He had to have known that three children didn’t want to be locked in here any more than he did. He didn’t show any signs of it, though, and Lloyd didn’t dare get any closer.

Then, of course… there was Ninten. Still sprawled out on the floor, with Lloyd’s jacket shoved under his head, and his hat knocked over next to him. Normally, Ninten would be the one to suggest that they huddle for warmth. This time, Lloyd wasn’t sure that he would be able to say yes, even if Ninten were conscious enough to offer.

Then, out of nowhere, Ninten groaned loudly. He sat up slowly, like he was in pain… and he probably was.

“Wh’… d’I f’ll ‘tta b’d?” he mumbled sleepily, rubbing his head.

“No,” Ana replied coldly.

Ninten winced at her tone. “Di’ I…”

His eyes finally opened enough to register their surroundings, and he gasped. 

“We’re in _jail?!_ ” he shouted in disbelief.

“Yeah, no thanks to you,” Ana said.

“Now, hang on, whatever we did--”

“Oh, no, Ninten, it was _all you,_ ” Ana assured him.

“O-okay, fine,” Ninten agreed with a wince. “What did _I_ do?”

Lloyd cleared his throat and avoided looking either of his friends in the eye. “Well… a lot of things. Do you remember anything from last night?”

“Uh… we were gonna check out that karaoke club in Valentine.”

“Do you know what happened after that?”

“No..?”

“Of course you don’t,” Ana muttered.

Lloyd shivered a little from the frigid air. “Okay, then we should probably catch you up before you somehow make things worse.”

* * *

Ninten led Lloyd and Ana into the low-lit building. Some rock ballad was playing over the speakers, and an elderly man was singing along in a growling voice. His song carried through the crowds of talking and laughing adults. _All_ adults, in fact.

Lloyd leaned a little closer to Ninten. "Are you sure we're allowed in here?"

"Well, no one's stoppin' us! Besides, if we wanna learn about this gang, we gotta go to their hideout!"

Lloyd sighed and straightened up again. If Ninten weren't so strong for his age, Lloyd would be terrified to meet up with gang members; even then, he was still nervous.

Ninten tugged on Lloyd and Ana's arms to get their attention. The two of them leaned in to hear him better.

"So here's the plan," he said. "Ya know how everyone said those gang members look? Black masks, and if not that, then one leg of their pants is rolled up and they've got red socks on. So Lloyd, you're real observant, right? Plus, you said you're farsighted, so you can see farther."

"That's not exactly how that works."

"Either way, I want you to watch from a distance. See if you can spot anyone from the gang, and figure out where they're goin'. Can ya do that for me?"

"Yeah, I guess," Lloyd agreed. "What are you two gonna do?"

"I'll go around talkin' to people. Ya know, askin' questions. And Ana, I'd like you to have my back. If things go south, who knows how many people we'd be up against?"

The thought made Lloyd shudder, and he was glad that Ninten put at least some thought into his own safety for once. Maybe he was taking a hint from his friends.

"I can do that," Ana agreed.

"Awesome! Okay, come with me. Lloyd, we'll come back if we find anything," Ninten said, and then led Ana into the mess of packed tables.

Normally, Lloyd would be a little irritated to be left behind. This time, he was actually grateful. Potentially meeting members of a dangerous gang didn't sound like something he wanted to be part of.

He started trying to look people over as they passed. No masks, that much was obvious. He couldn't really get a good look at anyone's ankles unless they were on the fringe of the crowd--hopefully Ninten and Ana were having more luck.

Ninten’s plan to track down a gang was very spur-of-the-moment, but Lloyd had to concede that most of Ninten's good ideas weren't exactly planned out. He was very good at thinking on his feet, and if that got him into any trouble, he would continue to think on his feet until he wasn't in trouble anymore. So, even though spending the evening in a questionable club was… unsettling, Lloyd trusted Ninten. He just had to roll with the punches, and somehow Ninten would pull success out of a hat again.

Eventually, someone caught Lloyd's eye… but not because of any of the things he was supposed to be looking for. The stranger, a large and intimidating man, was grabbing onto a woman who clearly didn't want anything to do with him. Lloyd winced as he watched the man constantly invade her personal space. He knew it was wrong, and he wanted to stop it, but… him, alone, against a grown man nearly twice his height? He didn't dare risk it.

Still, it made him realize that Ninten was… more oblivious than he seemed--and that was saying a lot, considering how few cues he picked up on already. As much as Lloyd wanted to just trust Ninten, seeing someone so unafraid to mistreat others made his fear spike.

Then again, Ninten made it sound very important to find this gang, so… maybe this was one of those exceptions he just had to make. Like traveling hours on a train without adult supervision, or running away from home on short notice, or getting into potentially deadly fights in the name of saving the world. The rules were different around kid psychics, he supposed.

Rationalizing only helped so much, though. Every minute that passed made Lloyd more anxious about what they were doing. His mother would be unbelievably upset with him if she caught him in a place like this. ...Not that Lloyd paid much mind to what his mother would want anymore. He usually tried to push away his thoughts about her, seeing as leaving home to help Ninten was the happiest he’d been in a long time.

Seeing as… he’d steered his friends in the opposite direction of the little shack in the swamp.

Maybe that man at the next table over, talking and laughing with a woman at his side, was another runaway. Maybe he had a family at home, and his date for the night wasn’t a part of that family. Maybe some people drank, and some people threw themselves onto strangers, and some people snuck away to hide between all of these awful things. Maybe they didn't want to go back home, so they crash-landed in a place like this instead. Maybe that man at that table knew that he could get away with ridiculous things because his wife and son didn't have a way to stop him--

No, there was no excuse. Not for three kids. Forget finding the gang, Lloyd needed to make Ninten leave. The three of them were _not_ supposed to be in this place. People were drinking alcohol, and getting _way_ too close to each other, and this definitely wasn't a place for three kids under the age of thirteen.

He took a deep breath, then plunged into the sea of bodies to try and find his friends.

"And then she told me…"

"...the best part was when the…"

"...never seen such huge--"

Lloyd finally found Ninten standing at a table with a woman. She was pretty young, and had blonde hair in a cloud around her head. Lloyd never understood why women did that. Wait, but Ana wasn't with them! Where did she go? They'd have to track her down, too.

"Ninten, we need to leave," Lloyd said, rushing to grab his hand.

"Aww, c'mon! I was just havin' a real nice conversation with this lady!" Ninten complained.

"Is he your friend?" the woman asked Lloyd.

"Yes. I'm sorry. We're on our way out."

"No we're not!" Ninten protested as he shook Lloyd's hand off. "If you're really that nervous about this place, you can walk with me instead."

"Wasn't that Ana's job?"

"Oh, the little blonde girl?" the woman asked. "Someone spilled a drink on her. She went to the toilets to clean up."

Lloyd's heart picked up speed. "Alone? Okay, Ninten, even if we are staying, we're going to find Ana first."

“Well, it’s not like anyone’s gonna hurt her!” Ninten said. “You worry too much. She almost killed you, she can look after herself.”

“But I saw--”

“Whatever you saw, it’s fine,” Ninten insisted.

“I still don’t think it’s safe to be here,” Lloyd repeated.

“Sorry, excuse me!” Ana’s voice called, just before she emerged in front of them. “We’ll have to find a laundry here in Valentine…”

“See? She’s _fine_ ,” Ninten told Lloyd. “Now, will ya stop worryin’?”

Ana did look okay, Lloyd supposed. Maybe he was overreacting.

“Lloyd, did you see something?” Ana asked.

“Naw, he’s just spooked. We’re gonna stick together for a while,” Ninten said.

Ana nodded. “I’m okay with that.”

“Yeah, you two had better look out for this one,” the woman at the table interjected with a nod at Ninten. “He’s the type that’ll get you in a boatload of trouble if you’re not careful!”

“We’re always careful!” Ninten protested.

“Thank you,” Lloyd said as Ana pulled Ninten away.

“So you really haven’t seen anything?” Ana asked.

“Gang related? No. Just various suspicious things,” Lloyd said.

Ana shrugged. “We _are_ in a karaoke club in a big city.”

“Karaoke!” Ninten burst out suddenly. “I’ve never done that before!”

Ninten’s impulsiveness was inconvenient, but not entirely surprising.

“You knew we were coming to a karaoke club already,” Lloyd pointed out, “and we have other things to worry about.”

“C’mon, just one song!”

Ninten fixed wide, pleading eyes on Lloyd, and suddenly it was a lot harder to breathe. Right, Lloyd had almost forgotten in the past few hours how debilitating it was when his crush slammed back into his thoughts uninvited.

_Deep breath. Just tell him no._

Just as the word was about to leave his mouth, Lloyd felt Ninten insistently swirl some feelings into his head. Since they’d left the desert, Ninten had been using his own brand of PSI Telepathy more and more, but… this wasn’t a message so much as it was a murky haze of random emotions. Lloyd probably would've been concerned, if the intrusion hadn't been so _loud._

“Um?” Lloyd stumbled, trying to sort out the invasive white noise in his head.

“I’ll take that as a yes!” Ninten exclaimed.

The fog suddenly cleared, just in time for Lloyd to join Ana in chasing after Ninten. He was making a beeline straight for the stage, and by the time they caught up, he was already talking to the person operating the machine.

“You’re pretty young,” he told Ninten.

“Yeah! That’s what my friend keeps sayin’. Ana, Lloyd, c’mere! We’re gonna sing somethin’!”

“ _We?_ ” Lloyd repeated.

“Name the song, kid.”

“Well, there’s this one song on a CD we’ve got, uh… I think it’s called ‘All That I Needed Was You’?”

Lloyd hadn’t listened to any of the CDs Ninten bought for Ana, so he had no idea why the karaoke operator laughed at Ninten’s choice. “Sure. Hop up on the stage and I’ll get the music going. You know the words okay?”

“By heart!”

Lloyd stumbled and nearly fell over when Ninten dragged him and Ana onto the stage. Just as he regained his footing, the music kicked on.

“Ana, you be my backup singer!” Ninten directed. “Lloyd, you and I are gonna put on a _show._ ”

That didn’t exactly sound promising, considering that Lloyd was already seconds away from bolting off the stage whether Ninten had a grip on him or not.

But before Lloyd could do a thing, Ninten was already at center stage, singing into a microphone. It was jarring to hear the voice of a choirboy out of Ninten's mouth--the way he formed every sound was so _different_ than his usual accent. The vowels stayed steady instead of warping by the end, and he didn't skip a single consonant. It was like he'd perfected every sound in the English language, but only when he sang.

As he watched Ninten twirling across the stage like he owned the world, multicolored lights reflecting off his eyes and badge, Lloyd forgot about his doubts completely. He was content to let Ninten take control, in all his confidence and skill, because somehow the shorts and T-shirt and the faint green patches on his socks and the melodic soprano voice were making him--

Lloyd stumbled backward when Ninten suddenly turned and grabbed both of his hands mid-line. He didn't even register the last word Ninten sang, skipping straight to Ninten's gap-tooth grin in the few seconds before he picked up the song again.

"I've looked for you all of my life, 'round every corner!" Ninten sang, spinning them in circles. "Wishing on stars like some kind of fool, oh…"

Wait. This almost sounded like--

"But now I see the stars in your eyes, those days are over! I took one look, and I was hooked--I found heaven in you!"

_What?!_

"And though my dream was overdue, my prayer was answered out of the blue, and now I know, I know it's true--all that I needed was you!"

Ninten looked Lloyd dead in the eyes… and _winked._

Lloyd felt faint. Sort of dizzy. Maybe from the spinning. This couldn't be real. He was stuck on a stage, and Ninten was singing him a _love song_ unnervingly close to his face. What was this supposed to mean?! It was too much to handle all at once. 

"Ninten." It was a weak whisper, and Lloyd was almost positive it got lost in the music.

Oblivious, Ninten giggled and kept pulling silly moves, dragging Lloyd into half of them.

"What are you doing?!" Ana hissed. Lloyd realized she hadn’t even participated in the first place.

"Karaoke!" Ninten replied gleefully.

He spun Lloyd around, then suddenly let go. Lloyd stumbled, and in trying to regain his balance, he made eye contact with Ana.

She was psychically silent, but the look on her face indicated betrayal.

"I was lost, anyone could tell, just tossing dimes in wishing wells--"

"Ninten--"

"Out of money and down on luck, was I surprised when lightning struck--"

Ninten's hands sparked with PSI energy, and Lloyd flinched.

"And suddenly, you were sent to me! My destiny, it was meant to be! I didn't know before what I was living for, but now I know for sure I have been waiting for _you!_ " Ninten finished on a high note, pitching forward and leaning all his weight on Lloyd with the same goofy grin.

" _Ninten,_ " Lloyd finally managed to say at a decent volume.

Just like that, Ninten's smile disappeared.

"You're… mad," Ninten observed. It sounded strangely clunky.

 _Was_ he mad? Lloyd hadn't even gotten around to figuring that part out.

"Well, are you kids gonna sing or what?!" someone shouted from the crowds.

"Oh, sorry,” Ninten called out. “I don’t think he wants a song anymore. Someone else should come finish it.”

Then, without so much as a word to Lloyd or Ana, he left the stage--and nearly fell over taking the steps back down to the floor.

Lloyd let Ana tug him off the stage. He wasn’t really thinking about it--his mind was more caught up on trying to figure out what just happened between him and Ninten. 

Was Ninten… did this mean he--but then why would it--Ninten wouldn’t just-- _this didn’t make sense!_ Should he even hope Ninten meant it? Was this some kind of joke? No, Ninten wasn’t clueless enough to make a joke like that--one that would hurt Lloyd so much. 

Had Lloyd only imagined the blush on Ninten’s face..?

Lloyd and Ana slammed into someone in their rush to follow Ninten, and it threw Lloyd out of his daze with an alarming jolt. They stumbled, and Lloyd’s hand shot out to help Ana regain her balance. She steadied herself and stood up--and then turned pale.

“ _Ninten?!_ ”

Lloyd followed Ana’s eyes to see Ninten standing at the same table as earlier, holding an empty glass just below his rosy face.

The impulsive karaoke number. The muddled Telepathy. The flushed cheeks. It all fell into place at once.

Ninten was _drunk._

“ _What?!_ ” Lloyd shouted, pulling himself back to his feet.

“Oh!” Ninten giggled and pointed to his glass. “She told me to drink this, for fun. I tried it, an’ it tasted kinda weird, but then it turned out she was right! So I told her so, and she got me ‘nother one!”

Lloyd snatched the glass from him and set it out of reach. “Ninten. Do you know what was in that?”

“Uh…”

“That was _alcohol._ This isn’t ‘for fun’, she got you drunk!”

That made the giggling disappear completely. Thankfully, Ninten at least had the sense to realize something was wrong with drinking alcohol at his age.

Lloyd spun to face the woman who’d gotten Ninten into this mess. "And you! He's TWELVE! What did you give him?!"

"A little something I order pretty often," she answered. "Relax. What's he weigh, 90 pounds soaking wet? Never drank before? This much vodka in his system, he won't remember a thing tomorrow. No harm done."

Ninten sniffled beside Lloyd. "I didn't know, honest! Oh, Momma's gonna kill me!"

"We're not going to tell your mom," Lloyd said. "We're getting out of here. Now."

"Whoa, whoa, not so fast!"

Lloyd turned around to see who was behind them… then scanned up the man's bulky body until he could see a face. In the dark, it was impossible to see his eyes behind his sharp-angled sunglasses--all Lloyd could make out on his face was a broken nose and a smirk.

"VPD's not gonna like seeing a little kid stumble down the street drunk," the deep voice continued… inflected by a slight speech impediment.

"Why d’ya sound funny?" Ninten asked, wide-eyed.

The stranger's smirk wore off, and he made a sound like he was _growling_. Lloyd shrunk back in fear.

"Are you making fun of me, redneck boy?"

"Aw, I'd never!" Ninten flashed a sloppy grin. "Bullies are no fun."

The intimidating stranger grabbed Ninten by his shirt collar and yanked him closer. Lloyd felt all the air still in his lungs.

"Then I would suggest you _shut your fucking mouth_ before I make that whistling gap in your teeth into a _harmonica._ "

"I can't play a harmonica," Ninten told him, sounding absolutely serious.

"Are you sassing me?!"

Ana took a half step forward. "He really didn't mean to offend you--"

One glare from the stranger shut Ana up.

"Kid, no one likes a smartass," he continued.

"You don't scare me!" Ninten said.

A dark laugh bubbled up from the stranger's body.

"Well, look who's got guts. I'll tell you what, kid--if you can beat me in a fight, I _won't_ ask my friends to take you out back and turn you into soup."

"I don't think you know who you're dealin' with," Ninten said, with every bit of confidence and none of the necessary reason.

Lloyd watched the last thin string of restraint snap behind the stranger's eyes.

"I don't care how old you are. Someone needs to teach you a lesson," he snapped. "We're taking this outside."

Ninten snorted. "PSI Hypnosis."

The stranger suddenly went rigid and dropped Ninten back onto the floor, leaving Lloyd to stare on in shock. He remembered Ninten mentioning hypnosis, a _long_ time ago, but he never imagined Ninten being able to entirely overtake someone.

Wait. If Ninten's Telepathy was all fuzzy--

The stranger started stumbling in circles, then rammed into a table and knocked over a bunch of drinks onto various people.

"Hey, who do you think you are?!" one of them demanded.

Under Ninten's influence, the stranger mumbled something unintelligible before he started twitching erratically.

“Ninten!” Ana shouted. “Cut off your PSI! This isn’t safe!”

“‘M not gonna hurt ‘im,” Ninten mumbled.

But the focus Ninten diverted to respond to Ana was enough for the stranger’s legs to collapse. He fell in a heap onto the floor, surrounded by an angry crowd.

" _Let go of him!_ " Lloyd panicked.

Within seconds, the stranger seemed lucid again. He sat up and glanced in every direction, trying to figure out what had happened. However, Lloyd's eyes didn't linger on him for long, because an interruption demanded his attention.

“Move it,” someone snapped, pushing through the crowds. “Can’t believe people get this wasted in public…”

A man in a dark uniform emerged--not police, but definitely a security guard of some kind. He shouldered his way past Ninten, and Ninten winced.

“Stand up!” the guard barked.

The stranger, startled and oblivious, jumped to his feet. “What’s going on?!”

“You tell _me,_ son.”

“Well, last I knew, that pipsqueak--” he pointed back at Ninten-- “was egging me on for a fight!”

The guard looked over at Ninten, and his whole face darkened.

“Are you intoxicated?”

Ninten shrunk back a little. “Wha’s that mean?”

“Drunk.”

“I di’nt mean to!” Ninten burst out.

Why did Ninten have to be so honest?! Lloyd's chest tightened. This could mean trouble. Serious, _criminal_ trouble.

The guard rolled his eyes and got out handcuffs, clicking them onto Ninten and the stranger. “They start younger every day. C’mon, you’re both in for a night with VPD.”

“Wait!” Ana called, drawing the guard’s attention. “We’re his friends--well, the younger one, I mean. We can look after him! Please don't take him to jail!”

The guard seemed to realize how young they were for the first time, and his eyes narrowed.

“Young lady, you’re in a bar underage. And you too,” the guard added, fixing his glare on Lloyd.

“But--”

“I don’t care what your excuse is. Now, are you going to come with me willingly, or do I need to ask the police to come inside and take more drastic measures?”

Lloyd and Ana locked eyes, then looked over at Ninten, handcuffed and whimpering about how much trouble he would be in once his mom found out.

_I don't think we can get out of this one, Lloyd._

"We'll come with you," Ana agreed.

* * *

"...so they confiscated your bat, because you kept going on about how hard you could hit someone with it, and then you threw up in that toilet a couple times, and eventually I had to give you my jacket because you wouldn't stop complaining about how uncomfortable the floor was."

Ninten looked absolutely horrified. He glanced over at Ana, who was burning a hole in the wall with her glare, and then back at Lloyd.

"I… I had no idea…"

Lloyd avoided looking Ninten in the eyes. "You hurt all of us last night. Obviously, picking on that guy's speech impediment wasn't nice. But… the way you acted on that stage wasn't okay, either."

"I-I really don't know what I--"

"You shoved Ana to the side like moldy leftovers, and you turned my feelings into a joke."

"I didn't--"

"Let me guess, _you didn't mean to._ " Lloyd wasn't crying, for once, and it half-scared him. "Well, whether or not you _meant_ to, you did. And it hurt. Not to mention, you wouldn’t have even been drunk at all if we'd just left early on."

It took all of Lloyd's will to keep his eyes off Ninten when he heard the tiny, stifled sniffle.

"I-I mean it, I'd never do that in my right mind! A-and I shoulda listened, I'm-'m sorry..."

An inkling of heartfelt pleading snuck into Lloyd's mind, and he finally looked over.

Ninten looked _scared._ He was staring back at Lloyd, and once they made eye contact, the little piece of Ninten's thoughts sneaking into Lloyd's head spiked--almost like he'd startled it. Lloyd felt the frustration fizzle out.

"We're still friends, okay? This just… bothers me. All of it. Both you and your PSI were out of control last night."

"PSI?"

The deep voice visibly startled everyone, and Ninten's Telepathy accidentally spiked panic into Lloyd's head just before it abruptly fled. He and Ninten both turned their heads to see their other roommate leaning up against the wall with a hard glare fixed on them. Lloyd realized that Ninten hadn't met this man yet, and his broad form and angry features were probably intimidating at best.

"Uh, y-yeah," Ninten replied. "PSI, like psionics. That's the fancy word, anyways."

"Is that what you used on me last night? Psionics?"

Ninten shrunk a little under the stranger's stare. "Yeah. My friends told me I used PSI Hypnosis on ya… I'm real sorry 'bout that…"

"So you hypnotized me. What are you, twelve? And you took over my body, while you were drunk."

"...Yes?" Ninten squeaked.

Then, straight out of left field, the stranger started to laugh.

"My name's Teddy, pipsqueak."

He stuck out a hand, and after the initial flinch, Ninten realized what was happening. He hopped up to a standing position and shook Teddy’s hand vigorously.

"Ninten Hollander, and this is Ana and Lloyd."

"So you're the little wanna-be heroes looking for my crew." He cracked a smirk at Ninten's deer-in-the-headlights face. "Word travels quick in Valentine. So what can you kids do with your psionics?"

Ninten glanced over at Ana. She was still glaring at some indeterminate point across from her, evidently not as satisfied with Ninten’s apology.

"Well, Ana's got all the firepower. She uses PSI Freeze, PSI Fire, and PSI Thunder. She's also real good at PSI Telepathy, like, 'speak in your head' kinda good. My abilities are less like attacks, more like defense. I can use PSI Shield, PSI Hypnosis, and a different kind of PSI Telepathy. Most of the time, I just hit things," Ninten finished with a grin.

"And what about this Lloyd kid?"

"Well, he's the brains here," Ninten explained. "He builds rockets, and teaches me math, and he makes all the smart decisions--"

"He doesn't have PSI?"

Ninten shook his head. "No, but he--"

"Is he any good with a weapon?"

"He's decent with a boomerang!" Ninten offered.

"Oh boy, nothing like getting a mild bruise from a wooden stick," Teddy scoffed.

Ninten clearly took offense to this, and he pointed an angry finger. "Hey! Don't treat Lloyd like that!"

Teddy only smirked. "Little spitfire, huh? Hey, what brings two kid psychics to Valentine, anyways? I heard you were on some crazy, dangerous journey or something."

"There's three of us," Ninten corrected. "We're gonna figure out what it is that's makin' people go haywire or disappear, and then we're gonna stop it!"

"That's a helluva goal. What's your plan?"

"Well, first off, we've gotta find the last three melodies, bring them back to the castle in Magicant for Queen Mary--"

"--and then sing 'Rainbow Connection' by the lake at sunset?" Teddy raised an eyebrow.

"I know it sounds made up, but Hypnosis and Telepathy do, too."

Teddy shrugged. "You got me there, kid. Tell you what, Valentine's a dangerous place… especially for the likes of him."

Ninten frowned when Teddy tossed his head in Lloyd's direction. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, the kid did say that your little homo stunt was making fun of his feelings, so I'd imagine he's crazy for you. That makes him a bright red target in this city, and what's he got to defend himself? A calculator?"

"I didn't know you were… awake to hear that," Lloyd mumbled.

"See, that's your problem! Something comes along to hurt you, and you just go all quiet and hunch your shoulders! You're gonna get yourself hurt, kid."

"He's just fine, thank you!" Ninten insisted.

Teddy shrugged. "Well, if he really can defend himself, then let's see him do it. You and me, Lloyd. One on one."

Lloyd flinched on instinct. “I don’t usually fight, you know, _people._ It’s mostly animals, and the few actual people I’ve fought were, uh, under something else’s power. This doesn’t feel right.”

“Think of it as self defense,” Teddy said. “I’ll go easy on you, c’mon. Just show me what you’re made of!”

Teddy stood up and gestured impatiently for Lloyd to join him. Against his better judgement, Lloyd stood to face him.

“You want the first blow?” Teddy offered.

Lloyd bit the inside of his lip.

“No? Well, all right.”

In the blink of an eye, Teddy lunged at Lloyd; in the blink of an eye, Lloyd ducked and crouched on the floor to shield his head.

The cell was silent, until eventually Lloyd tentatively lifted his head.

Ninten had sparking hands, glaring at Teddy, and Ana stood on Ninten’s other side with ice crystals dancing up her arms. None of them were injured. Ninten looked furious, but Teddy didn’t seem nearly as angry as before.

“You can’t just hit him like that!” Ninten shouted.

“Don’t you get it?” Teddy asked Ninten, gesturing to Lloyd. “I wasn’t gonna hurt him, I only wanted to prove a point. See, the kid won’t stand up and fight. He buckles under pressure. And you immediately went to protect him.”

“Yeah, ‘cause he’s my friend!”

“Look, if something, or some _one_ , hurts him, and neither of you psychics are there to bail him out…”

“We will be,” Ana said. Her voice still had its cold edge, but it was aimed at Teddy this time.

Teddy gestured to the walls around them. “What about last night, huh? When Ninten was out of it, and everyone else wound up in jail because of him?”

Ninten’s sparks died down.

“I’m not saying you two need to be perfect, all right?” Teddy continued. “We all do stupid shit. I’m just saying, as an outsider and someone who’s been around the block with danger... his life is in your hands. It’s a hard truth, but you can’t ignore it. Either or both of you make a mistake, and he pays the price. Is it worth the risk?”

Ninten glanced at Lloyd… then back at Teddy… then at the floor.

“He was the first friend I made on this adventure. He’s nice, and he’s smart, and he’s... my best friend, actually.”

Ninten took a step back from everyone.

“Ninten, what are you saying?” Ana asked cautiously.

“You’re right. Both of ya. I do dumb things ‘cause I think they’re gonna help us, but sometimes it doesn’t work out. If… I’m gonna be makin’ decisions without plans, and runnin’ right into dangerous places, I don’t want anyone else hurt for it. Least of all my best friend.”

The implications sunk into Lloyd’s heart, then his stomach.

“You saw how scared I was when I couldn’t find you in Snowman,” Ninten continued, now directing his words at Lloyd. “N’ you know how upset I get when you’re hurt. I nearly beat this Teddy guy up just ‘cause he _said_ he’d hurt you. You know things are gettin’ more n’ more dangerous, and… if somethin’ happened to you ‘cause I wasn’t lookin’ out for you, I’d…”

Ninten wasn’t articulating any full sentences, but Lloyd could see the situation for what it was. Maybe Ninten really had been blinded by their friendship when he insisted Lloyd was a necessary piece of the puzzle. Maybe Lloyd wasn’t doing much, except for being Ninten’s friend. This could be a deadly journey, and… Lloyd wasn’t anything special, not after taking “good grades” and “good friend” out of the mix.

In short: Lloyd would do more harm than good by staying with Ninten and Ana.

He surveyed his friends’ expressions. Ninten wouldn’t look Lloyd in the eye, and Ana was rapidly looking back and forth between Lloyd and Ninten with wide eyes.

“I understand,” Lloyd whispered, feeling his heart shatter inside him.

“I’ll Teleport you back home--”

“I can buy a bus ticket. You have more important things to worry about.”

“...well, maybe you could leave your phone number so I c’n call you--”

“Maybe after the world’s saved. I don’t want you to waste your time calling me.”

“It wouldn’t be a waste.”

The door outside the holding cell creaked open, and a police officer stepped in. 

“Good morning. You kids know why you had to stay the night here, right?”

“I got drunk,” Ninten answered, staring at the floor.

“And you snuck into a club underage, and you’ve been attacking people with a baseball bat.”

“Only if they attack first…”

The officer sighed. “You really do seem like a good kid. I’ll let you off with a warning--all of you. Just stay out of trouble, okay? Learn from your mistakes.”

He unlocked the cell door and swung it open with a high pitched squeak, marking the end of their stay… and the end of Lloyd’s time with his friends.

Lloyd picked up his hoodie off the floor and shrugged it on. He should’ve seen this coming. He was weak, and scared, and nowhere near as skilled or powerful as his friends. It was only a matter of time before he couldn’t make up for his weakness anymore.

“I’ll miss you,” Ninten said.

“You need to be prepared for the rest of this adventure,” Lloyd said, evading a genuine reply. “I think you should ask Teddy to go with you. He looks strong.”

Ninten turned to face Teddy and sized him up. It was pretty funny to see a beanpole of a twelve-year-old scrutinizing a muscular punk like he might not be of use, Lloyd had to admit.

“Maybe you’re right. Teddy, would you like to join us in stopping the Weird-ified and saving the world?”

“Stopping the _what?_ ”

“The evil stuff.”

Teddy shrugged. “As long as you don’t expect me to talk like a dumbass with all this ‘Queen Mary’ and ‘Weird-ified’ shit.”

Teddy’s words left a sour taste in Lloyd’s mouth, but Ninten seemed to take it in stride.

“You can talk however ya wanna, as long as you’re not rude.”

Seemingly satisfied, Teddy stuck out a hand for Ninten to shake. When they sealed the deal, Lloyd couldn’t look up from the floor.

“Good luck, you guys,” he murmured.

One of Ninten’s feet moved, like he wanted to approach Lloyd… but then it stopped. Hesitantly, the rubber toe of his sneaker withdrew.

"Stay safe," Ana said.

_I can tell you’re hurting… I'll look after him for you. I promise._

Lloyd left the cell alone, and this time he didn't even feel sad or angry. It was more like a gaping pit had opened in his body. Everything was just… empty, and it ached. 

No, that wasn't possible. That wasn't how the human body worked. His internal organs didn’t just disappear. ...Maybe he was only noticing that the happy fluttering feeling in his stomach was gone. Was this how he felt before he made friends? He didn't realize how awful it felt to be lonely until he'd had the chance not to be so lonely anymore.

But… they deserved this. Lloyd knew that much, at least. Ninten and Ana deserved to be heroes. They would put their skills to good use, and in the end they would be happy together. They were both really good people. They deserved to be heroes. This journey was meant for them from the start.

The pit opened wider, and a couple of tears spilled over.

Ana would protect Ninten. Teddy would help them both. What mattered was that the Weirdness would end. The world would be safe, and his friends would be safe, and Lloyd's life would be back to normal. Everything would work out just fine.

For now, though, he needed to find a bus stop.

* * *

Days later, Lloyd stepped off the bus in Thanksgiving. He had all of his belongings on his back, and his wallet in a tight grip--it was the middle of the night on a busy street, after all, and he’d only realized when he went to buy the ticket that Ninten had slipped two hundred dollars into his wallet.

Following the streetlamps, Lloyd turned things over in his head yet again. Something had been bothering him since what happened in the holding cell, and he still needed to figure out the answer. When Teddy challenged Lloyd, he said Lloyd didn't have any courage… but what about the first day he’d left school, when Ninten was hurt and overwhelmed, and Lloyd stood up to Weird-ified predators? What was different about Teddy faking an attack on Lloyd? Theoretically, ‘serious danger’ should warrant the same response even when the specific details of the situation change… right? It was basic fight-or-flight instinct.

It really wasn't worth it to speculate. Either way, he wasn't strong enough to help his friends. He just wished he could understand. He was a scientist, he liked to have answers.

He shivered a little and buried his fists deeper in his hoodie pockets. The sun had been down for hours, and nights in Thanksgiving were chilly. Maybe it would've been a good idea to keep that new jacket Ninten bought--

_LLOYD!_

Ana's telepathic shout made Lloyd stumble and nearly fall over.

She sounded hurt and scared, and her words carried a tidal wave of Ninten's panic with them.

Suddenly, Lloyd understood what made him brave.

He turned and sprinted back to the bus stop.

**Author's Note:**

> Please, _please_ don't murder me! There's a resolution coming, I promise.  
> Comments and feedback are always welcome!


End file.
